Translucent Video with radeon and Composite enabled

You can use xvinfo to check which video modes your graphic card supports.

Smplayer No Video Issue

Smplayer may have trouble opening mp4 (and probably flv) videos. If it plays only audio without video here is the fix:
Open your Template:Codeline file and add

[extension.mp4]
demuxer=mov

If problem persists after doing so, it is because of smplayer is keeping settings for that specific file. Deleting file settings of smplayer will fix this.

$ rm -rf ~/.config/smplayer/file_settings

(S)mplayer fails to resume playback after pause

Smplayer might stop playing a video after pausing it if your audio output driver is set wrong. If PulseAudio is used start mplayer with the "-ao pulse" argument or edit your Template:Codeline file and add

ao=pulse

In Smplayer you have to change your "Output-driver" under "General" - "Audio" in the options.

Transparent SMPlayer in Gnome with Composite enabled

Have you noticed the transparent screen of smplayer when you are using compiz and maybe cairo-dock? Well it’s ridiculous that when you open your videos using SMplayer you can just hear audio and no video! Here’s how you fix this: [copy paste into terminal]

If you don’t use sudo then just use “su” to login as root and do the above!

Watching streamed video

If you want to play a video stream (e.g *.asx link) use:

$ mplayer -playlist link-to-stream.asx

To play the stream, as these are playlists of streams and won't be playable by omitting the -playlist option.

Play mplayer with dvdnav support

If you want to use mplayer with dvdnav support to enable the menus of a dvd then use the following syntax:

$ mplayer -nocache dvdnav://

Seek forward/backward in a downloading file

If you want to be able to seek forward and backward in a video file which is still downloading whilst watching it, add the following to your config file.

idx=yes

Increase the total volume

If the maximal volume provided by the sound settings is not loud enough, you can increase the volume by mplayer itself. Activate softvol and set a maximal level which has to range between 10 and 10000.